LIFE-STUDY OF EZEKIEL
Read and pray: “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout jubilantly to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout to Him with psalms.” (Psa. 95:1,2)
Ezekiel is a book of figures or images, portraying spiritual things. We have considered four of these figures—the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum—which portray what God is to us. In our experience of Him, God is like a blowing wind, like a suspended cloud covering and shading, like lightning that enlightens and searches, and like a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29), which sanctifies us by burning us, and like the glowing and shining electrum.
The electrum, composed of elements of gold and silver, typifies the composite God, the God-Lamb (Rev. 22:1). The God who lives within us today is the God-Lamb; He is God Himself (gold), and He is also the Redeemer (silver). Thus, as the composite God, He is represented by the electrum.
To the Jews, God is typified only by gold, but to us Christians, our God, the composite God, is represented by the electrum with its two elements of gold and silver.
NOT DEAD BUT LIVING
Ezekiel 1:5a says, “And from the midst of it there came the likeness of four living creatures.” We need to pay attention to the first word in this verse, and. Not only did the electrum come out of the fire; something else also came out.
The wind brings the cloud; the cloud envelops the fire; and the fire produces the electrum in addition to another thing—the four living creatures. When we experience God as the blowing wind, the covering cloud, the consuming fire, and the electrum, we become the four living creatures.
We were dead, but by experiencing God in this way, we become something living. The Lord Jesus said that “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God” and “those who hear will live” (John 5:25). Paul said that we were dead, but God made us alive (Eph. 2:5).
The more we have the cycle of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum, the more we are vivified. Every time we are blown upon by God, covered, consumed, and burned by Him, we are vivified. As a result, we are vivified and vibrant.
If we are not living in the meetings, this proves that we are lacking in the experience of the cycle consisting of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. The more we experience this cycle, the more we will be vivified.
Whereas many Christians today prefer to attend a quiet service, we should be very living in the meetings and sometimes even make a joyful noise to the Lord (Psa. 95:1-2). Only the living can make such a noise. If we experience God as the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum, we will not remain quiet but will be living and even noisy in the church meetings.
The word living in Hebrew has the same root as the word life in Genesis 2:9, which speaks of the tree of life. How can we, who are creatures, become the living creatures? We become the living creatures by experiencing God as the tree of life. This life, the divine, eternal, uncreated life of God, is the real life.
Only by having this real life can we become a living creature. Whenever we experience God as the tree of life, we sense that we have something living within us. We have a living element, a living factor, within us. This living factor or element will always make us living.
Before we were saved, we were dead in our offenses and sins (Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13). In John 5:25 the Lord Jesus spoke directly concerning those who were spiritually dead: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” In this verse, to live means to be alive in the spirit.
When we were saved and regenerated, we had the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. The wind of the Holy Spirit blew upon us, the cloud of the Holy Spirit covered us, and the fire of the Holy Spirit enlightened us and burned us. As a result, we confessed our sins, and the electrum was produced within us.
In this way, we heard the voice of the Son of God and were vivified. We knew the glory of God and were saved and regenerated in His glorious manifestation. Through the experience of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum, we who were dead were vivified and became living creatures.
Now we must daily experience the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum so that we may become living and vibrant in our inner being. How can we prove that we are no longer dead but have become living creatures?
There is a twofold proof, that is, an inward proof and an outward proof. The inward proof is that we are living creatures and that we now have a feeling, or sense, of life. Living people have feelings. For example, when we are sitting in a room, we have a sense concerning the temperature. We can feel heat or feel cold.
A dead person, on the contrary, does not have this feeling. In the same way, if we are living before God, we will have an inward, spiritual sense concerning our condition. If we offend God or do something that is not pleasing to Him, we will have a sense of it.
A person who is spiritually living will have a deep sense whenever he lives in a way that does not glorify God or is not pleasing to Him. If our inward feeling, the feeling of the inward life, is sensitive, deep, and fresh, this is a proof that inwardly we are living and thus are a living creature.
However, some children of God may behave very badly, shaming the Lord’s name, yet they have no feeling about what they are doing. They are far from God and need to repent, but they have no inward feeling at all. This is a proof that inwardly they are dead.
A believer who is truly a living creature has much inward feeling concerning his condition. Since the first proof that we are living creatures is inward and related to our feeling, the second proof is outward and related to our activities.
A dead person is inactive, but a living person is very active. For example, children are very active because they are full of life. The principle is the same in the Christian life. A Christian who is living, that is, who is a living creature, will be involved in a number of activities. The first of these activities is prayer.
Just as we cannot live physically without breathing, so we cannot live spiritually without praying. Prayer is the spiritual breathing of a Christian and is often spontaneous. For example, as soon as we wake up in the morning, we may spontaneously thank the Lord for a new day.
To pray in this way is to breathe, and this is a sign that we are living. However, some believers may go for a long time, even months, without praying. The lack of the activity of prayer is a proof that they are not living.
Other activities that prove that we are living creatures include reading the Bible, functioning in the meetings, serving God, and preaching the gospel. Not reading the Bible, not attending the meetings or functioning in the meetings, not serving God, not testifying of the Lord, and not preaching the gospel—all these deficiencies indicate that we are not a living creature.
The way to prove that you are a living Christian is to consider all these points. Do you pray? Do you read the Bible? Do you exercise your spirit to function in the meetings? Do you serve the Lord? Do you testify of the Lord and preach the gospel? If you are deficient in these matters, you are not a living believer.
We should never think that a mature Christian does not need to engage in all these activities. The older and more mature we are in the Lord, the more spiritual activities we should have. I believe that if the apostle Paul were among us, he would be very active in prayer, in reading the Bible, in functioning in the meetings, in serving the Lord, and in preaching the gospel.
In the Christian life we can never “graduate” by being living. To graduate by being living is to die. Every living person must be living continually. Daily we need to experience the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. Every time we meet the Lord as the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum, our inner being will be vivified.
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